


happiness (kanehide)

by hiidee



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Ghouls (Tokyo Ghoul), Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Human Kaneki Ken, I was emotional when writing this :(, Kuroneki | Black-haired Kaneki Ken, M/M, Sunshine Boy Nagachika Hideyoshi, This is me complaining about the current world events, This is stupid don't read it, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, slight AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:20:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23488228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiidee/pseuds/hiidee
Summary: After a pandemic that took the lives of millions, government officials decided that the best way to prevent future spread of disease is to make all forms of physical contact illegal. Kaneki, someone with a lot on his mind, decided to get find a 'hug dealer'- someone that gives hugs to those struggling.
Relationships: Kaneki Ken | Sasaki Haise & Nagachika Hideyoshi, Kaneki Ken | Sasaki Haise/Nagachika Hideyoshi
Comments: 1
Kudos: 27





	happiness (kanehide)

**Author's Note:**

> based on a prompt that I found on my instagram, please enjoy C:

The rain dominated the streets of Tokyo for the third time that week.

There weren't many people outside during the rain, hatred of the cold and wet weather was a common feeling among the citizens in the crowded city. 

Kaneki also hated the rain, but today was a chance that he couldn’t miss.

The ravenette man's silhouette figure was a shadow in the darkness, his footsteps louder than usual, clearly eager to get to his destination. It had taken Kaneki many days to get onto the dark web safely and successfully, but he had managed with the steps given to him by a friend. 

But who on earth would want to go onto the dark web alone? Especially someone as meek and inexperienced at Kaneki himself? 

But Kaneki had a purpose on that side of the internet. Unlike most people during the times of crisis who used the dark web to supply their weapons and drug habits, Kaneki had wanted something that would be considered silly before the dark ages, but now was as illegal as the drugs and weapons on the site.

He had gotten into contact with a hug dealer.

Years prior to Kaneki’s current situation, the world went into another pandemic. The pandemic had lasted for months, and seemingly came out of nowhere. MIllions of civilians had died during the time disease was prominent, though it seemed like a blur to Kaneki now. Kaneki had always been an introvert, so when the orders to stay home were announced… he did exactly just that.

It wasn’t a big deal for Kaneki, and he in fact stayed inside of his tiny apartment for the rest of the following months. The only times he came outside were to feed the stray cats in the area, or to simply go to the store and get his groceries. 

He had in fact missed the people that he truly thought to be his friends, though it was only four people.

Touka, Yoriko, Nishiki and Kimi.

He always felt that he was the odd one out of the group, feeling as if he was only there to be a space closure at times. But, even so he missed them dearly during his time of isolation. They had all called, texted, and used video chats to communicate and keep touch during the crisis however, uplifting each other happily. 

After the orders to stay home were lifted, government officials had officially released to the public the next move to help prevent future spread of disease and sickness, which was something that a lot of people were not ready for at all.

The prime minister officialy announced that all forms of physical contact was outlawed, and if caught doing so the perpretrators would face capital punishment.

The death penalty.

When the news was announced Kaneki was shocked. He didn’t want to believe it at first, but when he started to see people getting arrested on the streets and getting removed from their own homes he realized that this was a new reality. 

That meant that he would no longer get to feel the physical contact of another human being. Even though Kaneki had never admitted it, he enjoyed getting hugs and high fives from his friends. After all, wasn't that the whole point of friendship?

To bond with and show affection to one another?

Months later, he had gotten one on one time with Nishio over the phone. This wasn’t a rare occasion for the two young men to be alone together, but with the new rules enforced into their lives.. It didn’t feel real.

Nishio was an expert when it came to computers, and didn’t hide the fact that he had easy access to websites that the federal government would probably behead them for visiting. Kaneki knew that two of these consisted of the dark web, and the deep web.

During their call, Kaneki had mentioned how badly he wanted to hug someone.

To feel the embrace of another person.

“Find a hug dealer on one of these sites, there's plenty of guys offering friendly service. Ready to die for a fuckin’ hug, your all stupid.” Nishio had said that to him that day.

Now, Kaneki wasn't one to break the rules easily. He was always deemed a goody two shoes by everyone that knew him! From teachers to his small circle of friends who swore that Kaneki was ‘secretly evil’ and that it was all ‘just an act’. 

Kaneki obviously denied the claims, but was deemed a little devil by his friends anyways.

Despite Kaneki not wanting to defy the people running his country, he was indeed willing to die for a damn hug.

After Nishio told him that, he didn’t hesitate to ask the strawberry blonde haired man for access to the deep web, telling his friend that he was willing to die, as long as he got to feel the lovely embrace of a hug.

Nishio hesitated, and gave Kaneki what he called a deal. Of course, he mentioned the dangers of going on the dark web unprotected, and all of the risks of the many sites as well. When he felt that Kaneki understood, he gave the ravenette all of the instructions that would be able to get a newbie such as Kaneki himself onto the dark web safely and successfully. 

After that, Nishio had told the ravenette about a supposed hug dealer that he strongly suggested Kaneki to go to. He claimed that going to this guy would be the safest way, and that he and Nishio were ‘frenemies’ in college. He thought it would be way safer than finding a random stranger on the dark web, especially since Nishio could easily find the man if something were to happen to Kaneki or something went wrong at all.

Kaneki gladly accepted, and Nishio had given him the man's number and social media.

After the conversation was wrapped, Kaneki quickly got on his task. First he browsed the dark web using a specific browser, and did all of the instructions to ensure Kaneki’s identity was protected. He simply surfed the web, thinking to himself how crazy the reality of the sites were.

He had seen fake passports for sale, instructions on how to successfully fake your own death, and drugs that Kaneki had never even heard of for sale. But Kaneki cut his surfing short, feeling he was getting too deep into the sites, since he was stumbling accross some very dsturbing pornography that he had wished he could erse from his mind forever.

After getting off the dark web, Kaneki made his way to use the contact information and hopefully get the hug that he wished for!

First, he had looked into the man's social media, easily finding it since he had seen that the man and Nishio were friends on the site. Attempting to keep himself together, Kaneki had stumbled apaun one of the most attractive men he had seen in his entire life.

He was a blonde as well, though his hair was brighter and reminded Kaneki of sunflowers than Nishio’s darker blonde hair that reminded Kaneki more of sand and such. He had brown eyes that stood out to Kaneki despite being a simple brown, because his eyes held strong emotion that Kaneki wished he himself had.

Happiness.

The man's eyes seemed happy in almost every picture, especially when a small cat was in his arms, who Kaneki learned was named ‘Harley’. Kaneki even felt attracted to the man's skin tone, a very nice light tan that told adventures of being outside during hot days.

After scrolling through the man's media some more, he was immediately eager to get a hug from him. That's when Kaneki had mustered up the courage to contact the man through text. He explained how he had gotten the number and how he was a close friend of Nishio’s, then he went into detail on what he wanted. He ended the message with an apology for contacting the man so late out of habit. The raven was extremely surprised to get a response within ten minutes, with the man saying he was happy to get a message from a person with a common friend denominator, and that he was more than happy to meet with Kaneki for hugs. 

Before Kaneki could reply though, a second message came through. The blonde had messaged this time that if Kaneki was okay with it, he was willing to meet with Kaneki half way from his home that very night. Even though he was slightly wary about meeting someone new late at night, Kaneki trusted Nishio and was more than happy to meet the man halfway. 

That was when they exchanged their locations, and had decided to meet behind a corner store that was roughly ten minutes from Kaneki’s home.

That was when Kaneki started walking through the rain, going to meet the man, who he learned earlier was named Hideyoshi, but preferred to be called Hide by people he knew.

Now Kaneki had arrived at his destination, his footsteps stopping and going mute in the rain. He slowly turned around the last corner that would take him behind the shop, and standing there with his green rain coat on was Hideyoshi.

Kaneki let out a whistle to let the other man know that he had arrived, and he was greeted with a big smile.

“Kaneki right? Nice to finally meet you!” he said happily to the raven, though keeping quiet with his greeting. His voice was smooth, smooth to the point Kaneki wouldn’t mind hearing him give a speech. But Kaneki couldn’t let the Hide know he was observing him on the first day, that would totally be embarrassing.

“Hide right? Nice to meet you too,” was the response Kaneki managed to give. The raven wished his voice wasn’t so shaky, but he was nervous! He tried not to stutter, but it seemed his mouth had a mind of his own.

“Um, I’m really sorry for making you come all of this way and stuff-”

“Woah, calm down. Breathe,”

Kaneki noticed Hide step closer, and Kaneki only then noticed that he was shaking. He realized that his nerves had officially gotten the best of him, and took a shaky breath as he was told. When Hide opened his arms and slowly wrapped them around Kaneki, the raven didn’t hesitate to take advantage of the contact and hugged the man back eagerly.

He felt one of Hide’s palms slide into the inside of his hood, then moved it to stroke the back of Kaneki’s head gently. Kaneki didn’t understand how he was feeling, but apparently he was crying because Hide had begun trying to console him.

“Hey, it's okay. Let it all out, and breathe,” he had said, his voice rivaling that of an angel.

So Kaneki did.

He let the tears flow, allowing all of the frustrated emotion release from his body and soul. When he was released from the hug, Kaneki noticed the tissues being handed to him and smiled as he accepted them

“Thanks, It really means a lot to me. Especially in the rain.”

“Not a prob’, I really hope that it helped you feel better from whatever is eating at you inside. Here’s a gift that’ll hopefully make you feel better.” 

Hide then reached into one of his coat pockets and handed Kaneki a ziplock bag, with what seemed to be muffins inside. Kaneki arched a brow, sniffling a bit. 

“Their muffins,” the blonde began with a smile. “Strawberry flavor to be exact. I didn’t do anything to them, I used my grandma’s recipe to make them. I had a feeling you really needed some support, and I thought that the best way to do so was to give you some foods made with love. So,” he paused, and Kaneki could have swore Hide was blushing.

“Do you like them?”

“I love muffins, I think they will be my midnight snack later.”

They stared at each other a bit longer, before they both heard the sound of thunder. It frightened them both, Hide jumping a bit.

“Damn,” he said. “The weather is so shitty tonight.”

“Yeah, but that's okay. Your hug was definitely worth it.”

“You think so?”

Kaneki simply nodded before grasping Hide’s hands in his own. Kaneki spoke, trying to sound as stable as possible.

“I want to see you again, so i’d really like it if you texted me when you make it home tonight.”

“I’d like to see you again too, and i will gladly text you when I make it home. It’s about time to get out of this shitty weather right?”

“Mhm, maybe we can get to know eachother better when the weather isn’t so shitty?”

“Perfect.”

Kaneki then took it upon himself to hug Hide this time, the blonde not hesitating to embrace Kankei’s smaller body to his own. 

After they finished, Hide had walked Kaneki to the front of the store's building where they finished their farewells there. Hide had even bought Kaneki a strawberry milk from the store, mentioning how horrible it would be to have a muffin with nothing to drink with it. 

As Kaneki walked home, he felt as if a lump in his heart was lifted from the encounter. He enjoyed how Hide had made him feel, and liked even more so how the blonde didn’t ask any questions on why Kaneki was upset. He simply made the raven feel at ease.

It was very easy for Kaneki, someone who didn’t believe in love at first sight, to say that he might even begin to like Hide more in the future.

And who knows, Hide might like him too.

**Author's Note:**

> the stay at home order is kicking my ass! I actually in one of the in the states where covid-19 is spreading that in the U.S (Cali) and it's absolutely terrifying. I even lost my part time job becasue it was one of the small businesses that closed :(( Im just hoping that everything will be over by August because I REALLY wanna see Backstreet Boys before I catch it or something. Anywho, enough about me and my mess. I really hope that everyone is taking precautions during this pandemic, and Im praying for everyone getting affected by the virus. But due to the fact I have no where else to go I will be writing more during these times of crisis :')) Im really in the process of rewriting a story on here (its an experimental AU with mama Hide... maybe youve read it) so im really excited for that. I just really needed to vent my frustrations of social distancing, so therefore this story was created. I really hope everyone enjoyed this, and im hoping for some comments with feedback even though this was a short story. Thanks for reading and stay safe during time of crisis!


End file.
